This blog discusses current weather, weather prediction, climate issues, and other topics

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

SMOKEZILLA Versus the Heat Wave

Today was one of the smokiest days ever in western Washington as the surge of smoke from the fires in British Columbia continued to push southward. The dense smoke, a.k.a. SMOKEZILLA, was thick enough to appreciably reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface and resulted in cooler temperatures than forecast. Seattle only hit 91F and Portland topped out at 103F, both locations 3-5F cooler than expected.

SMOKEZILLA was impressive in today's satellite imagery. The visible satellite imagery at 8 AM, was stunning, with smoke spreading across the lowlands and coastal zone.

The MODIS image around 1 PM shows amazingly dense smoke over NW Washington, with smoke around the entire region, including a plume headed out into the Pacific.

A colleague of mine, Gary Lackmann of NC State, took this picture today from his plane leaving Sea Tac....smoke nearly to the top of Rainier!

Air quality was unhealthy for much of western Washington and a burn ban is in place. The concentrations of particulates surged higher than yesterday, with locations such as Neah Bay's Cheeka Peak getting to Beijing levels.

What really impressed me was the reduction in solar radiation by the smoke. Comparing the radiation received today against two days ago, revealed a drop of 11-14% in intensity. As a result, the high temperatures were clearly suppressed by 3-5F. Seattle-Tacoma Airport "only" reached 91F, when 95F was expected. Portland peaked at 103F, when 107-108F was predicted.

So SMOKEZILLA clearly took the edge off the heat-wave monster. His (or her) services will be needed tomorrow, which should be the warmest of the sequence in Seattle (around 94F). But there is a downside to the smoke monster....it could well keep the temperatures up overnight (Wed to Thursday) since it will slow the loss of infrared energy to space from the surface.

And did I mention that Quillayute on the northwest Olympic Peninsula coast got to 99F, tying the ALL TIME RECORD HIGH FOR ANY DATE. And that was with smoke.

And believe it or not, air quality was MUCH better in Beijing today than in Seattle...here is proof:

I have lived in the Seattle area since 1964 and can not recall smoke to this extreme. Prior to 1964, I lived in Yakima, and when the orchardists lit those smudge pots in the cold springs it was hell in the valley. Unbelievable that they could get away with that.

Res smoke and sunrise in downtown Bremerton, we could not see the sun when first risen, it has emerged from the smoke and we can briefly look at it directly, I'd guess about 10 times as bright as the moon. We can see land masses opposite us, Washington Narrows, Sinclair inlet, and toward Rich Passage but heavily Obscured.

Cliff, I recall a day in the early 80's... 81? when I was working in Taholah and living in Hoquiam... and, while I'm a bit hazy on this, I believe it was late May - early June. We had one day where it hit 99-100. I'm kind of surprised Quillayute's 99 was an all time high... anyway, I'm ready for this to end ASAP.

Smokezilla is admittedly unpleasant, but I have a harder time dealing with the Dewpoint Fairy. The water content of the air is noticeably higher, and mornings have a hint of that East Coast sticky feel.

We are "losing" about 6 KWH/day on our solar array post smoke compared to pre smoke days. Who do we sue? ;-) Up here in Bellingham we may have a bit more smoke as there is a fire between Chuckanut and Blanchard Mts. Hope they get it out quickly.

Absolutely none of my iPhone weather apps even mentions the smoke or its effect. If I didn't also have air quality apps and you, I'd never have known. This needs correcting. Air quality is definitely part of the weather, unless you're a robot.

Pretty awful three days running here in north Whatcom County. Haven't seen smoke to this extent, and for this length of time, in the 21 years I've lived here. The stagnant air and unusually high humidity are making for some extremely unpleasant and unhealthy conditions. Not seeing a lot of relief in sight, either.

Cliff -- really appreciate these smoke updates, but the question on everyone's mind is if you have any prediction of when the smoke will clear? Are there any shifts in wind direction in the near forecast? I have a full-moon/stars photograph I'm aiming for this weekend and it will be ruined by any haze. Thanks!

Joe - there is a very interesting relationship between the high temperatures and the presence of the smoke in our area. (No, it's not the relationship between fire and heat). Cliff has explained this in past posts. See if you can find those and learn about it.

We closed on our house that week, so I very vividly remember that heat wave. However am I wrong in recalling the record high on 8/3/09 as being hotter here in Redmond WA (with a daytime high of 107)? Poor movers were ready to keel over.